Friday, November 4, 2011

I apologize for not posting this week. The beginning of this week was very difficult for me, emotionally. As some of you may know, I’ve been out of work due to renovations at my job since September 1st. The beginning of this month marked two whole months that I’ve been, for lack of a better term, unemployed. The stress of being financially strained and the stress of the yoga studio still not being finished has made for a truly debilitating period of depression. I was pretty much unable to do much besides check my email on Monday and Tuesday.

However, Wednesday brought me some truly joyous news: I was hired by L’Occitane for a part-time retail job! I’m going to have the softest hands in the blogosphere. Later that day, still on my high from being hired, I had lunch with the owner of the yoga studio I manage and was told that the studio should be reopening next weekend! So, in one day I went from having nothing to do to realizing that I’ll be working 12 hour days, six days a week! I am overjoyed and grateful. I can’t even begin to explain it. I bounced all over the place.

With this in mind, I spent Thursday taking care of errands I should have run earlier in the week but was too drained to do. While at Target (or Tar-jay, as I say), I bought myself a present to congratulate myself. This $7.99 purchase was inspired by a truly ingenious storage solution for perfume decants and sample vials shown to me by @alyssaharad after our Sensorium date last week.

Note the cute lovenotes from Mandy Aftel, Kedra Hart, and my boyfriend. Oh, and can you pinpoint the other perfume goodies?

On top of the storage unit is a vintage Guerlain coffret that my mother gave me (it’s been dated at 1989/1990) and the Ormonde Jayne Discovery Set, which I received this week (review upcoming, no worries!).

The first drawer holds two removable trays, each divided into three sections. Most of my (opened, unboxed) sample vials and decants are here. There was a method to the way I organized them, I swear. Note all of the Bond No.9 and Serge Lutens samples!

The second drawer has all of my Opus Oils samples, my Aroma M samples (in the velvet pouches), unopened Bond No.9 mini Bon-Bons, boxed Serge Lutens and Ineke samples, and some other decants (Amouage Gold Woman in the red atomizer, a cherished vintage Dior Addict decant from Carrie, my DSH Pandora decant, etc.), as well as some brand-new sample vials.

Now, here’s my problem: It was only after I showed earlier pictures of this to other blogger buddies that I realized that I had forgotten to add my Liz Zorn decants and vials, as well as my rollerballs, small dram bottles/other decants, and my other solid perfumes (Tocca and L’Occitane). Oops. I also realized that the second and third drawers are a bit cramped. Basically, I need another one of these organizers! Luckily, at $7.99 I can easily afford one, even before I get my first paycheck after two months!

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love notes:

I need these! What a great storage solution. Once you start going crazy with the samples and decants it can get overwhelming quickly. Great post. And we will always be here waiting for you. No apologies required ;-)

Congratulations on your L'O job and restarting at your studio. I don't wear fragrance but my eyes grew big at the site of this RE Organizer thinking of all my eyeshadow singles that don't know where to live!

This looks amazing! Right now my perfume samples are in some mugs, but I'd like something a little more compact. I got a set of similar plastic drawers (Sterilite maybe?) for my "makeup tower," but it's quite full. Maybe my next one can be full of a mix of nice looking and nice smelling things! I was also looking at those plastic lipstick dividers for storing liquid samples, because even though I know they don't need to be upright, I like them to be.Also, your stash looks heavenly! I love the packaging of the Roxana Villa scents. Thanks for sharing!xo Tara